Episode 4
He throws her a somewhat surprised look --
LORRAINE (cont'd)
Judy's growing up so fast -- we're
on the road all the time... it was
different when she was younger.
They sit still for a few silent beats, then --
ED
Tell you what, let's check this
one out, then take a break -- see
how you feel after that -- okay?
LORRAINE
...Sure.
Ed rises.
TIME CUT TO:
EXT. WARREN'S PLYMOUTH - NIGHT
Ed and Lorraine ride in silence along a lonely two-lane
stretch of road through rural countryside. The framed
picture of Judy now dangles from the rearview mirror.
Their headlights hit a small road sign riddled with
buckshot that's posted at a turnoff just ahead: COLLINS
TAFT RD.
Ed turns. Heads down a gravel strip of road that winds
its way through the trees to a mailbox. They turn in the
driveway.
-- Although it's dark and cloudy, scattered moonlight
casts an eerie glow over the farmhouse -- we see it's the
Perron's.
Lights on inside splinter out through several windows.
The Perron's station wagon is out front.
Ed pulls up and parks. As they get out of the car, he
goes to the trunk. Pops it open. Lorraine suddenly
stops cold -- her smile vanishes. She stands still --
slowly scans over the property; past the house, the
woods, the barn -- something's definitely got her
attention.
Ed retrieves a handheld tape recorder and note pad out of
a box in the trunk and closes it. Goes up to Lorraine --
She shows him her arms -- has GOOSEBUMPS all over them.
ED
I guess we're in the right place.
The two of them head up the walkway. Just as they round
a slight turn Lorraine's pov - WHOOSH! A BLACK LAB leaps right at her,
it's TEETH barred as it snarls viciously. Jaws snap. It
strains against a chain, which is tethered to a metal
post driven into the grass, then --
Resume -
Ed looks to Lorraine --
ED (cont'd)
You're getting something --
LORRAINE
Um-hum.
CUT TO:
EXT. PERRON'S HOUSE - FRONT DOOR - NIGHT
Ed and Lorraine stand at the front door. It opens,
revealing Carolyn standing before them.
LORRAINE
Carolyn?
CAROLYN
-- You found it okay?
ED
Yeah, no problem.
The girls join her at the door -- their expressions
somber. Soul weary.
CAROLYN
These are my daughters, Cindy and
Andrea.
CINDY/ANDREA
...Hi.
CAROLYN
Come in.
CUT TO:
INT. PERRON HOUSE - FOYER - SOON AFTER
Lorraine and Ed stand with Carolyn and the girls. We
catch them mid-conversation:
CAROLYN
...In the last few nights it's
gotten even worse.
ED
...And these apparitions, do any
of them have a smell?CINDY
The one I saw. It was horrible,
like rotting meat.
Ed glances to Lorraine.
CAROLYN
What? What is it? Please.
ED
It usually indicates some kind of
demonic activity.
An elevated wave of fear washes over Carolyn and the
girls.
CAROLYN
...Ohmygod.
Ed's eyes drift to a couple of door handles that line the
hallway where pieces of rope are dangling off them.
CAROLYN (cont'd)
It keeps them from banging at
night.
ED
Comes in threes -- bang bang bang?
She nods --
ED (cont'd)
It's an insult to the trinity;
father, son & Holy Spirit -- and I
bet it stops at dawn.
Another nod --
ED (cont'd)
God's light.
LORRAINE
Do you have a dog?
CAROLYN
Used to.
LORRAINE
A black lab?
CAROLYN
Yes. Sadie.
LORRAINE
What happened to her?
CAROLYN
The first night we moved in she
wouldn't come in the house -- so
Roger had to tether her out front.
(beat)
CONTINUED:
(MORE)Andrea found her dead in the
morning -- she had choked herself
to death on the chain.
Lorraine notices the cellar door that's been blocked
closed with the chair and door-wedge. She starts toward
it. Carolyn stays behind.
CAROLYN (cont'd)
We don't go down there anymore.
ED
Why?
CAROLYN
Because there's something in there
that keeps scratching from the
other side.
Lorraine gets to the door and pulls the chair and wedge
free -- opens the door, revealing --
-- Tons more of the DEEP, VIOLENT SCRATCHES. Lorraine
hits the switch on the wall, lighting up the basement.
INT. CELLAR - CONTINUOUS
Lorraine heads down the stairs. As she steps off the
bottom step -- she's hit with a BOMBARDMENT OF FAST, HARD
HITTING IMAGES OF --
-- FIVE DEAD, SKINLESS RABBITS sprawled out across the
bottom of a large cage; entrails dangling through the
meshing. The leg on one of them twitches.
-- The CEMENT FLOOR flowing with BLOOD.
-- A large, BLOOD-RED PENTAGRAM is plastered like
graffiti on a wall.
-- A CLOAKED FIGURE is having sex with a naked, dead
woman, her eyes locked wide open. Other cloaked figures,
faces hidden within hoods are close by, watching.
-- A HYPODERMIC NEEDLE being pushed into a vein on an arm
full of tracts.
-- Shadowed individuals surrounding an UPSIDE DOWN CROSS.
-- The FLASH of a GUN'S MUZZLE illuminating the face of a
heavy set woman as she pulls the trigger of a pistol with
its barrel pressed up under her chin.
Resume -
Lorraine looks sickened. Ed comes off the stairs and
joins her. She shakes her head in disgust at what's
happened in this cellar.LORRAINE
...This is bad, Ed.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. PERRON HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - RIGHT AFTER
Ed lags behind as Lorraine follows Carolyn and the girls
into the living room. She takes a moment, looking it
over.
ED
When did you move in?
CAROLYN
About five months ago.
Lorraine's eyes drift over to the fireplace where she's
hit with ANOTHER IMAGE OF --
-- blood dripping off the hearth onto the set of long,
narrow knitting needles swallowed in red.
She turns to Carolyn and the girls -
LORRAINE
Do any of you knit?
Carolyn shakes her head -- no.
CUT TO:
INT. HOUSE - STAIRS - RIGHT AFTER
As Carolyn, Andrea and Cindy lead Ed and Lorraine up the
stairs --
ANDREA
Tell'em about the birds, mom.
CAROLYN
It's the strangest thing, they fly
into the side of the barn -- necks
get broken. All kinds of 'em.
Cindy looks back to Lorraine and Ed --
CINDY
And things have been getting moved
around a lot. The table in the
kitchen was blocking the door this
morning.
As Carolyn steps onto the landing --
CAROLYN
And the clocks -- they stop at
5:15 a.m.LORRAINE
All of them?
CAROLYN
Um-hum.
INT. HOUSE - UPSTAIRS HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS
Ed and Lorraine continue to follow the girls toward the
master bedroom. The walls are empty except for several
protruding nails from each.
CAROLYN
We used to have family pictures,
but something keeps knocking them
off the nails, so I just stopped
putting them back up.
LORRAINE
And your husband hasn't seen any
of this?
Carolyn shakes her head.
CAROLYN
Things only happen when he's gone.
He thinks it's all in our heads.
ED
He's not being shown anything on
purpose.
Off her look --
ED (cont'd)
It creates friction in the
relationship, a negative energy
for whatever's here to feed on.
CAROLYN
Well, it's working.
As they pass Andrea's room --
CAROLYN (cont'd)
This is where Andrea had that
experience on the bed.
Lorraine pauses for a moment looking in. Notices that
none of the pillows have cases on them.
CUT TO:
INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT
LORRAINE O.C.
Where was the apparition?
Lorraine and Ed enter, leaving Carolyn and the girls at
the doorframe.On the left side of the bed.
Lorraine walks over to it. Ed moves to a dresser, looks
to a framed photo of the girls, then to a framed wedding
picture of Roger and Carolyn. There's another photo of
Roger kneeling on one knee, posing next to a twelve-point
buck he's shot. His rifle rests across his arms.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. KITCHEN - LATER
Ed sits with Carolyn at the kitchen table with his tape
recorder between them.
ED
I just want you to start from the
beginning.
Carolyn nods. Ed hits the PLAY and RECORD buttons at the
same time.
ED (cont'd)
My name's Ed Warren. It's
November 1st, 1972. I'm sitting
here with Carolyn Perron who, with
her family, has been experiencing
supernatural occurrences --
He looks to Carolyn.
ED (cont'd)
Okay, go ahead --
CUT TO:
INT. PERRON HOUSE - FAMILY ROOM - SAME
Lorraine is sitting on the sofa with Andrea. She notices
that she's bitten her nails down to nothing --
LORRAINE
-- Anything else?
ANDREA
-- Sometimes I hear a baby crying
in the fireplace.
Andrea's eyes drift over to the fireplace, which is
blackened, and full of ash.
LORRAINE
Do you feel like any one of these
things want to hurt you?
ANDREA
Um-hum --
Her eyes meet Lorraine's.ANDREA (cont'd)
...How do you know when they're
around?
LORRAINE
I get Goose bumps.
ANDREA
When I get Goose bumps, does that
mean they're near me?
LORRAINE
Maybe -- can you tell me what
you've seen?
DISSOLVE INTO:
Lorraine is with Cindy, who has her arms wrapped around
her knees, all hunched up on the sofa. She stares off
blankly --
CINDY
-- I don't know what it was. My
mom thinks it might be what's been
scratching at the cellar door --
FLASHBACK TO:
INT. HALLWAY - NIGHT
Cindy, wrapped in a towel, walks out of the upstairs
bathroom. She stops dead in her tracks, staring at the
floor, where --
-- backlit by the moon, a tree lays shadows on it through
a window at the far end. But it's not the tree branches
that disturbs her, it's that --
-- SOMETHING IS SITTING on the branches with crooked
arms, taloned claws, and legs sprouted grotesquely from a
bulky torso --
She forces herself to look out the window -- but
nothing's there.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. PERRON HOUSE - HALLWAY - LATER
Lorraine walks into the kitchen, where Ed is still
interviewing Carolyn. He pauses the tape, looks to her --
LORRAINE
I'm going to go outside.Almost done.
CUT TO:
EXT. PERRON HOUSE - SIDE DOOR - RIGHT AFTER
Lorraine exits the house.
She pauses on the landing for a moment, looking around --
sees the Scarecrow now standing in the empty garden,
worn, weathered -- looking like someone crucified with
its arms out.
Her eyes move to the barn, shadowed in the dark like some
ill-boding beast. We can see that she's drawn to it.
She steps off the porch. Halfway across the yard, she
stops -- as if she senses something -- like she's being
watched.
She shifts her gaze just beyond the barn, where a
restless breeze has the entire landscape in motion. She
lets it go, continues on to the barn.
CUT TO:
EXT. BARN - NIGHT - RIGHT AFTER
Lorraine's about to open the door when she sees --
-- two dead pigeons on the ground, necks broken.
She opens the barn door and looks in. She sees sabers of
moonlight pierce in through gaps in the tired,
dilapidated wood siding, then --
-- Lorraine's immediately hit with ANOTHER HARD HITTING
image of Judson on the ground, his bloody face smashed
in.
Resume -
INT. BARN - CONTINUOUS
Lorraine steps into the barn and continues several feet
in. She stops -- takes in her environment. An old CHEVY
PICKUP is parked toward the back next to an elongated
work bench. Six abandoned horse stalls are tucked along
one side. There's a ladder that leads up to a loft.
As Lorraine turns to leave -- KA-THUMP!
-- A SET OF BARE FEET COME JERKING TO A STOP RIGHT IN
FRONT OF HER FACE -- the toenails are incredibly long.
Cracked. Dirty.
Lorraine looks up. Sees a woman dangling from a rafter
by a rope -- her neck broken at an odd angle. She's in a long grey dress, and has scraggly dark hair
framing her face. Her eyes are bulging wide open, and
seem to be staring at Lorraine.
ED O.C.
There you are.
Lorraine's eyes shift to Ed standing in the doorway --
she walks toward him, literally passing through the
dangling legs as they fade from her psychic vision.
CUT TO:
INT. PERRON HOUSE - KITCHEN - LATER
Ed and Lorraine are sitting at the kitchen table.
Carolyn refills coffee cups. Lorraine's looking at the
melted monkeys on the table before her.
CAROLYN
Do you think she's the same one
Cindy saw?
LORRAINE
...I don't know.
ED
When these things invade a home,
it's quite possible that something
has invited them here, or conjured
them up somehow.
LORRAINE
I've asked the girls, but we need
to know -- have either you or your
husband ever practiced any kind of
Satanic worship -- anything of the
occult?
Carolyn's appalled at the notion.
LORRAINE (cont'd)
My God, no.
ED
People dabble, think it's kind of
fun. Play with a Ouija board,
invoke things up in a Seance --
and then can't get rid of them.
It happens more often than you
know.
LORRAINE
With what I saw in the basement,
this house was some sort of
satanic shrine at some point.
(beat)
Do you know the history of this
farm?